Willem de Kooning - Evening Editions New York Thursday, April 21, 2011 | Phillips

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  • Literature

    Lanier Graham 38

  • Catalogue Essay

    It was not until he returned from his trip to Japan that he responded to do a body of lithographs. Perhaps the seeing and feeling of calligraphy, sumi brush painting and Zen inspired him to sufficiently to do prints. Whatever, the results were beautiful… We worked for a year together in 1970 and 1971, proofing thirty-eight images, of which twenty-four were editioned. Irwin Hollander, Tamarind Papers 8, 1985, p. 34.
    De Kooning gave this work to Concetta Moltisanti Fabrizio who was a fulltime East Hampton resident and owner-waitress with her Moltisanti parents and brother of North Main Street Luncheonette & Ice Cream on North Main Street, East Hampton (established 1946). In 1971, de Kooning had been a regular at the luncheonette, biking there from his home and studio in the Springs, to take many of his meals. When after a time he did not appear, Concetta grew worried and drove to his studio with plates of lasagna, ziti and spumoni (his favorite). De Kooning had been working intensely and had not been taking the time to eat or bike to the luncheonette. He enjoyed Concetta’s company and would ask her to sit there and she would watch him work. On that day told her to go into a drawer and take whatever she wanted.

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, EAST HAMPTON

25

Untitled (Bather I)

1971
Lithograph, on Akawara paper, with full margins,
I. 23 1/2 x 31 1/2 in. (59.7 x 80 cm);
S. 27 3/4 x 39 1/2 in. (70.5 x 100.3 cm)

signed, annotated ‘T.P.’ and inscribed ‘to Concetta with love’ in pencil, one of only 3 or 4 proofs (there was no published edition), occasional surface soiling, minor creasing and pale foxing (primarily in the margins), pale mat staining, a small paper loss at lower right corner, a crease at lower left sheet corner, otherwise in good condition, framed.

Estimate
$10,000 - 15,000 

Sold for $17,500

Evening Editions

21 April 2011
New York